Thanks to fast provider onboarding and delegated payer contracts, new patients can see therapists within four days.
Grow Therapy, which launched in 2020, is on a mission to break down barriers for anyone seeking mental healthcare. Almost one-third of American adults with mental illness reported that they were unable to receive treatment with 42% unable to afford proper care. Grow is helping providers overcome the administrative challenges of running a private practice and empowering patients to find the right therapist-match via their diverse network.
To overcome widespread mental healthcare access issues, Grow Therapy knew they had to establish a nationwide network of providers, and partner with as many health insurance plans as possible. Looking at their operational process, they saw a challenge when it came to efficiently credentialing and enrolling providers.
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By 2022, Grow Therapy’s provider credentialing program was still in its infancy. They were working with a CVO that delivered inconsistent turnaround times and relied on a lot of manual data entry to keep information updated in their homegrown CRM.
Grow Therapy knew they were overdue for a credentialing solution when they saw that inefficiencies were causing turnaround times to balloon. Christy recalls, “Our credentialing turnaround times were anywhere from 60 to 120 days. Not only was the timeframe creating a bottleneck, but the inconsistency made it challenging to plan and forecast.”
Grow knew that if they wanted to scale and build an unmatched therapy network, they’d need to find a new credentialing solution.
As Christy and her team researched a delegated credentialing partner, they zeroed in on those with NCQA certification. They also required seamless CRM integration to avoid further disruptions.
"We’re building a gold star credentialing program for our provider network and want to make it easy for payors to work with us. This meant that we needed NCQA certification, as well as an API that made interoperability simple,” said Christy.
Verifiable, a tech-first credentialing solution with an NCQA-certified CVO, was at the top of the list.
When it came to finalizing their partnership decision, Christy recalls that “Verifiable was a clear stand out from others in the market. They checked our boxes for interoperability and NCQA certification.” Christy adds, “However, the thing that really won us over was the real-time primary source verifications. These verifications have continued to expand since we started working together, and it’s been invaluable."
On top of these features and functionality, integrations like CAQH have been a hit with providers.
Christy shares, “Since working together, we’ve reduced the amount of information that providers need to give us up front because of the CAQH import. Before, our form used to take providers 20-30 minutes. Now, we offer a more streamlined experience and can cut the completion time down to 10 minutes.”
Prior to these imports and automated data entry, Grow was experiencing human error associated with manual processing. “Before, I had to do more of a double-check on things. It wasn’t uncommon that I would have to send things back to our CVO. We don’t have to do this with Verifiable now,” Christy explains.
Being able to credential faster with less administrative burden and errors, was exactly what Grow Therapy needed to handle their rapid growth.
"Before Verifiable, the average time for provider credentialing approval was about 60 days. At our worst, it took 130 days from a provider handing off their credentialing information to full sign-off from our committee. Now, we credential nearly all of our providers in under 30 days. The majority of our providers are credentialed within two weeks —from the time we receive a provider application, to the moment they’re approved for scheduling—even while bringing on 1,000+ new providers every month," explains Christy.
The correlation between faster credentialing and attracting more providers has created a positive cycle for Grow Therapy. It has enhanced their reputation amongst providers and payers, increased referrals, and brought more clients through the door to receive the treatment they need.
“Closing out 2023, we work with over 50 different insurance companies. We have providers who are licensed in all 50 states, and we process hundreds of thousands of claims per month. This network breadth enables new clients to see their preferred therapist within just 3-4 days of their request,” shared Christy.
The strength of the credentialing program has made them an attractive partner to work with for payers.
In other words, Grow Therapy’s automated credentialing program has positively impacted the entire spectrum of care for patients, providers, and payers.
Christy concludes by saying, “Leveraging technology has been really important for our credentialing system. Not having to build out the board integrations and leaning on Verifiable as subject matter experts has been super beneficial. The team’s subject expertise has been a real high point.”
Partnering with Verifiable has cleared the way for Grow Therapy to deliver exceptional mental healthcare to more people. It’s also paved the way for talented healthcare providers to run their own practices.
Grow Therapy is a great example of how innovation, a clear mission, and the right technology partner can come together to make healthcare better.